Santas Oh My!

Oh and in my spare time (hahaha!) I have made someMath Learning Activities for my little ones. They are for sale on TPT.

Santas, Reindeer and Snowmen Oh, My!

Run, Run As Fast As You Can.....!

Haven't posted in a while, but I think this is the first time I've sat down at my computer in a while.  We are getting ready for the holidays, but there is still lots of learning going on!
                              
We have been reading about the Gingerbread Man.  He has run away from us.  He has been spotted all over the United States, but no one can seem to catch him.  We have postcards from several places he has been so far.  This is our introduction to the United States and our home state of Louisiana.  We will be tracking him through December.

                                                              First Stop - New York!

                                                      
                                                     Then he was off to Alaska! Brrrrr.

                                That funny Gingerbread Man even sent us some "Moose Poop"!
Of course my kiddos thought that was wildly hilarious!  Here are some pics of us eating the "Moose Droppings".   It was the highlight of the day!

                                        After Alaska, he went somewhere warmer---Tennessee 

 

Could someone catch him please??

Stay tuned to see where he runs to next.

We are watching our mailbox for another postcard.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

What a great week! I have lots to be thankful for! I am thankful everyday, but this time of year really makes me stop and think about all the blessings in my life. I am thankful for my husband, my two girls, my friends, my coworkers, my job, and of course all the precious little ones in my class. I am really blessed to get up every morning and come to a job that I love. I work with amazing faculty and I have incredible parent support. Here are some pics from all of our Thanksgiving activities this week.  We made Native American shirts for our Thanksgiving Feast. 

 These are our pinecone turkeys.  It was our Family Project for Thanksgiving.  They are super cute and the kiddos were so proud to share them!

 We worked on syllables this week.  We cut out thanksgiving foods and sorted them by syllables.  The children worked in small groups so there are three different papers.  Here are some pictures of the children working hard to complete their project.

Over the Hill?

Lots to post today! That's what happens when I don't post for awhile. First of all, when I walked into my room this morning there were black balloons, black streamers and black confetti everywhere. Yep! Today's my birthday the big 40. I thought if I didn't make a big deal about it, I could wake up tomorrow and still be 39! Haha! My aide and my coworkers had other ideas! The whole faculty wore black in my honor! I work with the best people in the world!

 During all this we are also learning!  This week we are studying the number 8 and spiders.  My darlings mad some super cute spiders while learning spider facts.

 In case today isn't busy enough, I just put my Questions of the Day on TPT.  It is only the first half of the alphabet.  I am working on the other half.  Hopefully I will have that next week.  I have a Question of the Day posted each day.  It is always a question with a yes or no answer.  They put their name under the answer they choose.  Then we count up each side, total it and put the number at the bottom.  Then we can talk about which group had more or less, why they chose that answer, and have some beginning of the day conversations.  It's a great way todraw them in first thing in the morning and get the day started. You can purchase these "Questions" "Questions of the Day"

We Got It!

I love Fall. I love the cooler temperatures, football, the beautiful colors,and the cool weather foods. But I especially love that my students are finally getting in the groove. They know and follow the rules(most of the time). They are becoming independent thinkers. They are able to work in small groups and with partners to problem solve, play games and do learning activities. In the mornings when we come in they do Partner games. I put many games around the room on the floor. The rule is that only 2 people can play together and they have to finish the game before moving on to another. The games can be literacy games, math games, seasonal games or social living games. I try to change them up weekly. Sometimes the games are the same with different manipulatives. Today I noticed they are finally getting the hang of it! They are so excited when they find a match, get the right order, finish a lengthy game, or get the right answer. I love this time of the year! Now I feel like we are getting somewhere.

D is for Dinosaur

D is for Dinosaurs!  At least in my room this week.  There are so many fabulous dinosaur units to pull from.  Kids love dinosaurs.  This week we talked about habitats of dinoaurs, what they ate, how they protected themselves, and how they traveled.  We made a few dinosaurs of our own.  We made "Name Dinosaurs".  They paint their dinosaur and I give them the spiny plates (colored triangles) with the letters of their name on them.  They have to put them in order on top of their dinosaur's back.

 We also used our handprints to make some dinosaurs.  We love to paint!

 Like all great teachers, I search and borrow ideas from other teachers.  One of my favorite teacher that has great idea for independent learning stations is Julie Lee.  She has some awesome ideas! Many times though, the content is too hard for my little Pre-Kers.  So sometimes I take her ideas and make them to fit our curricuclum and ability level.  This is one of those.  My kiddos were palentologists and went on a "Dinosaur Hunt".  I put colored dinosaurs all over the room with letters on them (only up to D because that's as far as we have gotten).  They had a paper in their hands with lettered dinosaurs and they had to go "find" the dinosaur with the matching letter and color it the right color.This was one of their favorite activities of the week.